Higher Ground Music Festival Artist Preview: Be Calm Honcho
by Tim Wenger
Be Calm Honcho is an act to be seen. The band has been putting the pedal to the metal with constant touring pushed by constant social media promotion and a memorable stage show. The music is a modern blend of indie and west coast pop and they are gaining a reputation as a band that does what they say they are going to do- here is the lowdown on the group, straight from the horse’s mouth.
CMB: First things first. Give us the story of the band.
BCH: Be Calm Honcho has been a gigging musical animal for just over two years. We started in San Francisco in 2013, but Alex & I met in college at Davis and started playing together there in 2010. We got our start touring with my solo material, which had a heavy folk tilt, very singer-songwriter. Eventually we began writing music as a band and have been evolving our collective musical identity ever since. We released our debut LP “Honcho Dreams” on Crossbill Records in July 2014 and are in the middle of recording the follow up. We made some line-up changes this winter and have been touring as a three-piece. Alex took the lead with song writing and our new material is more minimalist, we’re experimenting a lot with synth bass, piano and diversifying our sound.
CMB: How was the process of gaining traction in San Francisco? Is the scene there very supportive, or have you guys felt that you’ve had to claw your way up?
BCH: Hah! I wouldn’t characterize San Francisco (or the greater Bay Area) as a cutthroat music scene. It’s just very saturated and a really popular market, so in that sense it’s competitive, but more importantly it’s collaborative and community oriented. Local musicians generally want to help each other out and certainly now that we have an greater lay of the land, I want to see other emerging artists have success and put together shows with musicians I think work hard at their art, aren’t just “in the loop” or well connected. I mean we got our start just hustling weekday shows super hard and making good relationships with bookers, proving that we really we’re going to promote and bring bodies out and that’s a huge priority. Being organized, polite and keeping your word with bookers goes a LONGGGGG way.
CMB: What direction do you see pop-rock heading this year?
BCH: I’m probably not the leading authority on the direction of specific genres, but I’m certainly observing a huge celebration of the “performance”. I think the climate is so inundated with touring bands with generic tag lines and basic line-ups and a lot of my favorite musicians are focused on distinguishing themselves from the pack. There’s been a departure from the ‘staring at your sneakers looking awkward’ aesthetic of the last decade and a lot of audiences want to find expressive and outward connection with bands. I’m a big fan of technology too and I’m always looking forward to creative ways people are going to exploit new tech to simplify, diversify, augment and improve their live and recorded music.
CMB: Other than HGMF, what is Be Calm Honcho up to this year?
BCH: We’ve been on a touring tear this year and our trip out to Denver in August will be the middle of our last (probably…hopefully) tour of the year. When we made our line-up changes this winter, we kicked off 2015 with a bunch of new material, a new drummer & new instrumentation. It was really important to us to get our live show groove going and just work out the northwest circuit for a while. We also have a new full-length album in the works that we’re producing ourselves so that’ll continue to occupy all of our non-road time. 2015 is still a bit of an adolescent year for us as a band and we are continuing to learn the ropes and tricks of the trade; everything we do this year is going to set us up sweet for a big fat sweaty 2016.
CMB: What is the best place to check out your tunes?
BCH: Well, after you buy our limited vinyl edition of “Honcho Dreams” off of bandcamp, I suggest inviting your top ten favorite people over to your house, cooking up a big pot of gumbo and quickly teaching yourself how to make a killer mint-julep (peach bitters are key!) Proceed to turn the speakers so they face the backyard, bust out your bocci ball set (or croquet) and just enjoy the ones you love most. Our music celebrates not just the west coast, but the best things in life: babes, girl vocalists & the ocean.
Category: Buzzworthy2
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